Almost a month after Bloomsday, Joyceans came out in force last Tuesday evening for the opening of Mr Joyce Is Leaving Paris, the inaugural production of Ronan Wilmot and Liz Cosgrave's Dublin Theatre Company. Senator David Norris was ebullient about the play, written by Tom Gallacher: "It's a wonderful play - I knew some of the people whom Joyce knew in Paris."
Taking advantage of the fact that they were mentioned in Finnegans Wake, sponsors Jameson provided the refreshments. "Joyce was very fond of the Jemmy," explained Mr Norris. "Even his monogram is the same." Actor and producer Aine O'Connor was accompanied by actor Dave Duffy, better known as Leo from Fair City. The couple first met during a production of this very play in London, when Ms O'Connor ran Portrait Theatre Company with Ronan Wilmot. "Dave was in the play, and when he came onstage I was just bowled over by his presence," she said. "Going to see this play is like reliving our first meeting."
More recently, Aine met and dined with Gianni Versace just a week or so before he was gunned down in Miami. Irish actor Ga- briel Byrne invited Aine and her friend Terry Hayden to the designer's Paris show, and afterwards the group joined Demi Moore, Naomi Campbell, Kate Capshaw and Mimi Rogers at Versace's table in the Ritz. "I think you can take any of Gianni Versace's dresses and hang them in an art gallery - he was a great designer, a true artist," she said.
Aine O'Connor currently runs Crimson Films with Gerry McColgan, and they have already made the Leading Hollywood series in which Aine interviewed Irish stars including Gabriel Byrne, Stephen Rea, Aidan Quinn and Liam Neeson; their next project is Lord Of The Mountain, a screenplay by Neil Donnelly, based on a Walter Macken novel.
Meanwhile, Dave Duffy is starring in two Welsh-made films, House Of America and Dark Lands. "The first is about unemployed miners who have a Kerouac obsession," explained Dave, "and the other one is a horror movie, a sort of update of The Wicker Man. I play a corrupt, devil-worshipping cop." Makes the nasty Leo in Fair City seem like a perfect gentleman.
